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Amid Sugar Price Surge, Vajpayee’s Old Speech Goes Viral

Centre’s Discomfiture Sparks Belated Remedial Actions
Rabindra Nath Sinha - 2026-08-27 12:16 UTC
An old, forceful speech in Parliament of Atal Behari Vajpayee, then a BJP leader in the Opposition, has resurfaced online in recent days. The veteran leader, who later became Prime Minister, chose to speak on the marked uptrend in the open market prices of sugar which then had touched Rs 20 a kg [reportedly spiralling by 20-30 per cent]. On that occasion, Vajpayee traced the unusual spurt to failure on the part of the then Union government to foresee supply shortages, lack of inter-ministerial coordination, the matter not receiving due attention in the Prime Minister’s office and bureaucrats’ failure to advise the authorities to arrange import of sugar well in time as there were enough indication of sugarcane production declining. He bluntly said the abnormal price spurt had seriously hurt consumer interest. If this is one aspect of the prevailing situation the other aspect is that the profiteering that generated crores of rupees must have been shared between mill owners and traders.

Supreme Court Action Activates Lok Sabha on TMC Rebel Issue

This Has Now Become a Test Case for Anti-Defection Law
Gyan Pathak - 2026-08-27 12:11 UTC
After the Supreme Court of India on August 25, 2026, agreed to hear TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s plea for swift action on the issue of party’s 20 rebel MPs pending in the Lok Sabha for their disqualification, and directed to issue notices to Lok Sabha Speaker as tribunal in such cases, Secretary General of the Lok Sabha, and the rebel MPs, the Lok Sabha secretariat became active. It issued notices to the rebel MPs, dated on the same day, asking them to reply within seven days. It means TMC rebel-MP episode has now become much bigger than a routine party split, and has become a test case not only for the anti-defection law, but also the Speaker’s constitutional role, the Supreme Court’s power to prevent strategic delay, and the BJP’s politics of defection.

HAL-Safran Helicopter Engine Deal: India Breaks Import Trap?

Two-Way Exchange: HAL Gets Propulsion Expertise, Safran Gets Scale
TN Ashok - 2026-08-27 12:04 UTC
India has built fighter aircraft, warships, tanks and some of the world’s most sophisticated missiles, but one weakness has repeatedly haunted its defence-industrial ambitions: engines. The country has been able to design and manufacture airframes, yet propulsion technology has remained heavily dependent on foreign suppliers.

Mamdani, RSS and Madison Square Garden: New York’s Culture War?

Two Competing Ideas of India Have Sharply Collided in Manhattan
Ashok Nilakatan Ayers - 2026-08-27 11:52 UTC
The battle over Madison Square Garden has suddenly acquired a significance far beyond a single weekend gathering of Indian Americans. At its heart is a collision between two sharply different visions of India, Hindu identity versus pluralism — and an uncomfortable question about whether the politics of New York’s first Indian-American Muslim mayor is beginning to intersect with India’s increasingly consequential relationship with Israel and the wider politics of Gaza.

India’s Solar Ambitions: Findings By Aditya-Li Valuable to Science

Decoding the Sun is Key to Many Future Climate-Tech Breakthroughs
Tirthankar Mitra - 2026-08-27 11:47 UTC
India's solar ambitions have begun to produce substantial findings post passage of Aditya-Li, the country's first dedicated space-based observatory mission to study the sun. It can change the understanding of one of nature's most fundamental problems.

Keralam’s Deepening Train Travails: Time for United Action

Move to Bifurcate Palakkad Division Crippling Blow to Its Finances
P Sreekumaran - 2026-08-27 11:42 UTC
It is nothing short of a double whammy for Kerala. The state is seething with anger over the Railway Board’s decision to detach the Mangaluru region from the Palakkad division and merge it with the South Western Railway’s Mysuru division.

Trump’s New Visa Squeeze: U.S. Turns Immigration Gate into a Toll Booth

Non-Immigrant Tourist, Student and H-1B Visas Are Safe for Now
TN Ashok - 2026-08-27 11:34 UTC
President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has entered a new and potentially disruptive phase: the United States has temporarily paused immigrant visa interviews worldwide, forcing American embassies and consulates to reschedule appointments while consular officers undergo fresh training on how to identify applicants who could become dependent on U.S. public benefits.

Both Samajwadi Party, BJP Woo Women Voters of Uttar Pradesh

Women's Vote Could Become the ‘Swing Constituency’ of 2027 Election
Pradeep Kapoor - 2026-08-27 11:26 UTC
Women voters are rapidly becoming one of the most important battlegrounds between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh, ahead of the 2027 Assembly election.

Kites of Gaza’s Children: Israel’s Latest Military Target

Trump’s Board of Peace Complies with Tel Aviv’s Unfair Demands
Aseel Saleh - 2026-08-27 11:19 UTC
The Israeli Army has accused Hamas of launching the kites and ordered military action be taken “against this lethal weapon” and “those operating it”.

Handing Over Strategic Space Capability to Private Sector is Dangerous

Lack of Institutional Mechanism Against Undesirable Transfers Worrying
K Raveendran - 2026-08-26 14:11 UTC
The argument over the future of the Indian Space Research Organisation has moved well beyond the familiar debate over whether private enterprise should have a role in India’s space programme. Private participation is no longer hypothetical. It is government policy, backed by legislation, regulatory changes, foreign investment liberalisation, technology transfers and an expanding ecosystem of start-ups. The real question is whether India is creating a larger national space capability around ISRO or gradually transferring publicly created capabilities out of ISRO without building sufficiently strong safeguards around what follows.
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